After an air crash, group of westerners find themselves marooned in the Himalayan valley of Shangri-La. There is a monastery where the peace-loving lamas do not seem to age and are intent on preserving the best of world civilisation. The visitors are invited to remain.
This utopian work was a very popular escapist novel in the thirties; and with the economic depression, the memories of the Great War, and the prospect of another war, they had good reason to like escapist literature.

I don't know why, i wasn't able to find this thread when i searched for it... so i made my own, and here it is, in case it's useful. A rather simplistic conversion from the HTML version from the Australian Gutenberg site. Table of Contents, Kindle joystick navigation, etc.